The Literartist

(pronounced liter-ar-tist) functions as a social commentary which sinks into a collection of issues related to most young adults.

While not exhaustive, topics bite on society, technology, gossip, popular culture, entertainment, fashion, modern trends, food, education, attitudes and anything related to the most complex process of all, living.

About Me

is an alumnus of American University (AU), Washington D.C., and is originally from the pearl of the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka. Equipped with a major in Economics and a second major in English Literature, he is completely oblivious to where he will be in the next 10 years. Some of his interests include management consulting, laughing, rowing, Hollywood pop-culture, six-pack-hunting, nightlife relishing, philanthropy, achieving, and of course, writing.
Nazran has written and published content for The Eagle, WasteGate, LinkedIn, American University, and a variety of other sources, including the publication of scholarly works in online academic journals. A published author, his literary works have also been featured in AOIS21's 2014 Annual Literary Magazine.

Must visit places: All of Europe, South Africa, Australia, Caribbean Islands, the Amazon, China, Egypt

Height: 5' 10"

Dream job(s): Professor of Literature, Consultant

Aspirations: Writing, publishing, philanthropy, Heaven

Thursday, May 29, 2014

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014): Movie Review

Ultimately,
at its reactive mutant core, “X-Men Days of Future Past”

(2014) is a film that
successfully plugs into the direct story-telling current of existential dualism.
A well-charged magnet for binaries, it entertains audiences with a selection of
tasteful thematic powers that burst asunder: Existentialism vs.
Humanism; Fate vs. Choice; Hope vs. Despair; Addiction vs. Rehabilitation; and
Sameness vs. Otherness. To say that Director Bryan Singer provides ample
material for the X-Men to wrestle with will be the understatement of this
summer.

"Days"
begins in its bleak end: A destroyed future washed with an overcast of fog,
fear and human desolation. Mutants are being hunted and the humans are seen
enslaved by their own genius—the Sentinels. The Sentinels, given enough upload
time, can now replicate their mutant-prey's abilities at the molecular level. Sinisterly
different, they are not the Bumblebee Transformer-types from the comics.
Evolution has furnished them with agile builds and sleek metal-scaled skin
that pay homage to their queen muse—Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence).

Empire

"To
save the present we must go back" is the urgency for our remaining X-Men
who unite under the crushing weight of their impending doom. Kitty Pryde’s
(Ellen Page) new ability to transport consciousness along the thread of
time is convenient enough to facilitate the task. The bearing of it, however,
falls on our world-weary Logan (Hugh Jackman). With the elderly blessings of
Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen), Logan’s consciousness
(not bodily time travel) zings back to 1973 to stop Mystique’s assassination of
Dr. Bolivar Trask (Game of Throne’s Peter Dinklage): the act that nourishes
the birth of the Sentinel program.

In
“Days”, reconciling human conflicts rooted in psychology proves to be the heaviest
lift for Logan, especially when assisting young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy)
combat his inner struggles. Then rescuing Eric Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender)
from the Pentagon, and repairing the bromance gone sour between Charles and
Erik is even more grueling for the temperamental Wolverine who needs them
united to stop their common love interest—Raven/Mystique—from triggering world
annihilation. Meanwhile, in the future-present, the last remaining X-Men:
Storm, Bishop, Blink, Sunspot, Warpath, Iceman and others continue defending
the ongoing operation, knowing that holding off these new Sentinels is as
hopeful as saving water with a cupped hand.

The competing urgency of future-present
and past-present leaves viewers at the mercy of the film’s solid writing,
penned by Simon Kinberg

. With suspense and empathy levels at
record highs, we are a split audience concerned for the fates of our beloved
mutant brethren caged in two distant time periods, 50 years away, each of them
reciprocally influencing one another’s fate.

Set mostly in the ‘70s, we don’t complain. The attention paid to
mise-en-scène to recreate a believable ‘70s world is terrific. While we enjoy
Logan’s over-sized vintage tinted sunglasses and the old-fashioned muscle car,
the camera work excels further. Select shots featuring old
TV camera footage recreate believable throwback experiences while low-angle
tracking shots over emphasize the action. The pace
of motion has a Handycam home-movie feel at times. For once, The
Washington Post's review gets it right. It was a pleasure to see the switch
from “high-level video-game look of the modern sequences to a style that
resembles the movies of the time.” What O’Sullivan from the Post doesn’t tell us is that
the technique transports the audience through time itself: both in terms of the '70s movie experience,as well as escaping
the gloom of the future for the renewed excitement of the past.

Overly
star-studded movies can go flaccid quickly—Batman and Robin (1997) and
Valentine’s Day (2010) anyone? Yet with “Days” we need not worry. If at all,
our only complaint is that we don’t get enough of the other characters we love:
Storm, Jean, Scott, Rogue etc...

The
British quadruple-threat of old and young Professor Xaviers and Magnetos are too
good to share the same screen. McAvoy’s shouting of “I don’t want your
suffering! I don’t want your ‘futcha!’” (that’s what it sounded like to me)
will be stored in viewer memory forevermore. His muddled enunciation of a man
suffering is performative art. Similarly, Stewart’s Gandolf-ian wisdom on love,
tolerance, hope and second chances, echoes through time with obedience inducing
magnetism. His message resonates with audiences for multiple reasons—1) their love
for the character who knows the human mind better than anyone, and 2) their respect for Patrick Stewart as the granddaddy actor of popular culture fandom.
When the older Professor X speaks we almost feel him rewiring our minds to
listen.

Ian
McKellan’s performance is warmly touching; he’s the best friend here, though
somewhat feeble looking when in action. Blame Fassbender’s commanding
performance of the younger more robust Magneto for this. Fassbender is perfect.
He has the right sturdy body to be magnetic; his costume is a stylish dark red,
not too bright to look like Red Riding Hood (as in the comics); and his poker
face renders him unreadable. Fitting for someone who is Charles’ best friend
and worst enemy—a true bromance with psychotic “it’s complicated” issues,
really. His only mistake is lifting RFK stadium for no good reason. It didn't pass me that the move was to make a
statement about mutant power to the world. It did. But it also begs the question
if the motivation was more for the spectacle in movie making than for plot? I thought they
would bring in the Air Force to give it reason but guess not. Either way, the
chemistry of Erik and Charles is iron solid; it leaves us feeling safe with the
younger counterparts. So much so it feels almost okay to hand over the batons
from Stewart and McKellan to McAvoy and Fassbender. And that’s saying a lot.

Jackman’s
Wolverine is also flawless. His self-perceptive humor with one-liner galore pleases audiences with a healthy supply of
comic relief right throughout. His reaction at the end (no spoilers here) when
he sees what we see, sends for goose bumps. The X-Men franchise has done such a
great job of elongating his yearnings through Wolverine’s elastic storyline
which stretches from the days of 2000 in “X-Men” up until today. It was truly
an emotional tug teased to satisfaction, leaving viewers feeling fuzzy and warm
at first, and then salivating for more.

Star
performance: none other than Evan Peters who briefly plays the young
Quicksilver. In “Last Stand” we had Callisto. She was so fast we
could see her blurry residue when she moved. Peter’s Quicksilver, however, is
light-years ahead of her. We don’t see him; we feel him. In a stunning scene filmed
in stop-time freeze frame shots, Singer gives us the extraordinary pleasure of
Quicksilver’s point of view. Logan and Charles are breaking Erik out of the
world’s most secure prison when—time stops; and Quicksilver starts. His
laidback “meh” type personality, in conjunction with his music choice of Jim
Croce’s “Time in a Bottle”

is
a highlight moment of the movie that is burnt crisply into our mental vault of Best Movie Memories of All Time. Quicksilver jogs lightly, rearranging bullets, soups,
guns, and punches at leisure to create a comic scene. The cinema exploded with laughter and broke into applause after panting; I
hope yours did/will too.

Overall, when compared to the “The Avengers” (2012), as
Dana Stevens points out, the X-Men appear to be a more mature bunch of sorts.
They possess an acute emotional sensitivity to their internal musings as well
as to the larger themes that affect those around them and the audiences that
come to watch them. Their story of discrimination and rejection functions as an
allegory for us to absorb. When “X-Men” was released in 2000 it paved the way
for the sagas of superhero movies to come. Though the series stumbled on its own
ends with disasters like the “Last Stand” in “Days” we find salvation in
Singer’s return. He hits the Reset button. Time meddling leaves us with a lot
of unanswered questions, like: How is Professor Xavier even alive after Jean
vaporized him? And yet, the questions aren’t as itchy. This is what happens
when a movie is done this well; you learn to trust in it. When one’s
satisfaction is sky-high, the inkling to bring it down is swatted.

And so,
we’ll wait. And we’ll believe that the comic universe has a way of sorting
itself around and explain itself when needed. It is a form of faith in its own
right—that everything will make sense, or already does; besides, not knowing is
not likely to bring about an apocalypse in our lives so why worry. For its multiple
successes “X-Men Days of Future Past” receives an applaud-worthy8.7/10.Adieu.